"Bridge" for inmates to stay open

Wednesday

Planned closure of program helping women transition back into society had prompted outcry

A program that helps female inmates reintegrate into society will be kept open following a public outcry over plans to close it.

The Florida Department of Corrections said late Wednesday it will spare the Bradenton Bridges of America re-entry program, a faith-based nonprofit which was slated for closure along with 10 other facilities as part of the department's cost-cutting attempts.

Earlier this month the DOC told the 70 employees working at the women's minimum-security facility they would lose their jobs at the end of the month. The 120 inmates, including many who were working off-site jobs for local employers, were told they would be returned to traditional prisons.

Before the DOC changed its mind and relented, backers of the facility, which included elected officials, staff and the inmates themselves, said at a rally that closing the doors in a cost-cutting move will jeopardize public safety and waste taxpayer dollars.

Bridges of America President Lori Costantino-Brown got the call Wednesday. Her staff and the inmates in their care were ebullient when she gave them the news the program had been spared.

"To say they were excited was an understatement," Costantino-Brown said. "They were pretty much packing their bags. To be told they can continue in the program, and that the staff can keep their jobs, they were elated. There are no words to describe their happiness."

Shelly DiCostanzo, whose daughter Cassi is an inmate at the Bradenton Facility, screamed in joy when relating the news.

Costantino-Brown said she was able to broker a deal with Corrections Secretary Kenneth Tucker to keep the Bradenton facility open, but the deal came at a cost.

Two similar men's facilities operated by Bridges of America in Broward County will lose 148 of their 412 combined beds.

"We are not going to remove anyone from existing beds," Costantino-Brown said. "We will work the numbers down by attrition so nobody gets taken out of programs, or off jobs, or taken back to prison. I think the agreement we struck, under the financial circumstances the department currently faces, was fair."

Costantino-Brown singled out Governor Rick Scott and his staff, Tucker and several lawmakers and community supporters for special thanks.

"From the beginning, we all shared the goal of ensuring public safety in the most affordable and effective way possible," she said. "We did not always agree on the best approach to reaching this goal, but the spirit of cooperation exhibited by the Department in the last few days played an important role in reaching this resolution."

Costantino-Brown's programs house inmates cheaper than the DOC — $34 per day as opposed to $56 per day in a state facility. Her programs also get better results, she said — namely an 11 percent recidivism rate compared to the 40 percent of state inmates who return to prison within three years of their release.

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